23,000 people reported missing since start of Russia-Ukraine war: Red Cross

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) - Two years after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the International Red Cross said Monday it is seeking to clarify the fate of 23,000 people whose families have no news of them.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the people are missing because they have either been captured, killed or because they lost contact after fleeing their homes.

The Red Cross did not say whether they were missing from Ukraine or territories seized by Russia after Moscow sent its forces into its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022.

The ICRC said: "Two years after the escalation of the armed conflict, humanitarian needs are rising, including for millions of people displaced, both within and beyond the borders of the two countries."

"Not knowing what happened to a loved one is excruciating, and this is the tragic reality for tens of thousands of families who live in a state of constant anguish," said Dusan Vujasanin, who heads the ICRC's Central Tracing Agency Bureau for the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

- 115,000 phone calls

Over the last two years, the ICRC said it received more than 115,000 phone calls, online requests, letters, or in-person visits from families from Russia and Ukraine looking for missing relatives.

Separately, Ukraine's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Yevheniia Filipenko said Monday that at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council session, which runs from Feb. 26 to April 5, her county would propose an updated resolution to counter disinformation.

The session is likely to discuss an independent commission of inquiry set up on Ukraine.

"We are all threatened by disinformation, which can lead to serious human rights violations and even war crimes and atrocities as with Ukraine," Filipenko said at a press conference organized by the UN correspondents' association in Geneva, ACANU.

She said Ukraine would welcome China taking part in the peace process in Ukraine.

"Of course, we want to have China on board," said Filipnenko, noting that there had been a recent meeting between foreign ministers of Ukraine and China.

She said it has been "10 years of suffering of people under occupation and under aggression" since Russia seized Crimea in 2014.

"And here in Geneva, we will continue to use all instruments to address Russian aggression as a major threat to multi-multilateralism," she added.